This invention relates to the food product called couscous and particularly to a new and improved method for making couscous, to a new and improved couscous food product, and to speedy methods of preparing the new couscous product for consumption.
Couscous appears to be unique among cereal grain food products. It is distinguished by the special way it can be and traditionally has been prepared for consumption, namely by a series of simple hydrating and steaming steps. Generally, the steaming of the product to an edible condition is accomplished in a couscoussiere.
The traditional method for making couscous has been by mixing water with durum wheat semolina in a gissa or large wooden dish, then rubbing the mixture between the palms of one's hands to form agglomerates or small irregularly shaped granules, screening the granules to proper size, followed by steam precooking of the granules, and finally sun-drying those of the proper size. Sun-dried couscous has a long shelf life.
Until recently, the traditional method has been the only known method for making couscous. Credit goes to the Buhler company of Uzwil, Switzerland for successfully developing a method for the commercial production of couscous and for setting up the first commercial production facility in Sfax, Tunisia in 1979. As in the traditional method, the first step of the known commercial method is that of blending water and semolina until optimum agglomeration or granule formation is achieved. This is accomplished without forming the semolina into a unitary doughy mass. A mechanical mixer such as a paddle mixer is used for this step and the mixing takes about 3 minutes to provide granules of a moisture content of about 30-35%.
The next step of the known commercial method involves feeding the coarse, irregularly shaped and random-sized moist granules into a detacher where the granules of oversize are reduced and those of proper size are strengthened and shaped to form the couscous agglomerates. This step takes about 7 minutes.
Thereafter wet sifting may be done to separate undesired fines and oversized particles from the proper size range for the agglomerates. Fines are recycled back to the beginning mixing step and oversized agglomerates are routed back through the detacher.
Next the couscous agglomerates are passed on a conveyor belt through a steam cooking operation. This steaming step takes about 8 minutes at a temperature of about 180.degree. C. The moisture of the couscous product is elevated to about 37% by weight by the time the product exits the steaming operation. In this steaming step, approximately 55 or 60% by weight of the starch is gelatinized.
The agglomerates are then dried in climate-controlled dryers. For example, a predrying stage may take 2 hours at 65.degree. C. and a main drying stage may take 41/2 hours at 55.degree. C. Drying is conducted until the product moisture is reduced below 13%, preferably to 10-12%. The dried product is then cooled back to ambient conditions and sifted into oversized conglomerates, fine, medium, and coarse couscous, and undersized granules. Oversized agglomerates are passed through a roller mill and the resulting fraction is resifted. Undersized particles are metered into the beginning mixing step.
Couscous is a wheat-based particulate product that gives a granular mouthfeel. The proper size range for its dried particles is from about 0.85 to about 2.5 millimeter mesh. The particles of a specific couscous product should not vary more than about 1 mm mesh, preferably not more than about 0.5 mm mesh, between the largest and smallest. Uniformity of size is a mark of quality for couscous and has not been easily achieved using known methods of manufacture. Particles lacking uniformity of shape and size result in irregular cooking quality and unsatisfactory mouthfeel. The required property of granular mouthfeel further means that the particles must remain separate and not stick together when they are rehydrated and cooked (as by steaming) for consumption. Cooking with sauces or moisture should soften the particles but not so greatly that they exhibit no resistance to the bite. Chewing of the particles should shear them, that is, subdivide them into smaller and smaller particles. The chewed particles should not give a brittle or rubbery or sticky or pasty or gummy feeling. The traditional granular mouthfeel associated with agglomerates is critical.
The major problems associated with the known commercial technique for manufacturing couscous have centered on quality and particularly the expense of getting quality. There is the initial expense caused by using durum semolina and avoiding the more economical durum flour as a starting material, the extra expense involved in special reworking of powdery fines and crushing oversized particles, the base expense for the extensive capital equipment as well as the relatively large factory space to accommodate it, and the unrelenting expenses associated with the several costly handling steps.
The thrust of this invention takes the couscous art in an entirely different direction from that which it has taken in the past. In this regard, insofar as is known, no one has heretofore proposed a method for the manufacture of couscous that would consistently yield particles of proper size and of relatively uniform size and shape, without any significant powdery fines and without any significant oversized particles. It further appears that no one in the past has had the slightest inkling that substantially uniformly shaped and smooth surfaced particles could satisfy couscous criteria and in fact give the traditional couscous granular mouthfeel heretofore associated only with the irregularly shaped agglomerated prior art particles. It still further appears that no one ever conceived that uniformly shaped particles could possess still other couscous sought-for attributes such as desired firmness associated with mouthfeel, desired avoidance of objectionable stickiness, and desired quick rehydration and reduced time of steam cooking for consumption--plus no significant loss of color and even an enhancement of the yellowness for durum couscous (but color is highly dependent on the composition of the starting material). It is in this uncharted new direction that the couscous art is taken by this invention.